Just Hold My Hand - Chapter 5

Most parts of a dream were her client’s domain, so Sonidor couldn’t influence any of it with her will, but the sky was her domain. It was the only area where she could design not only the time of day, but also the weather. There was also a way for her to sway a situation through the weather. However, the emperor showed displeasure for the first time at her question and slightly wrinkled his brow.

“Why do you think I would know such nonsense?”

“…”

“If it was the nanny of the Crown Prince who had looked after him since he was little, she would know. She was Viscountess Ross… Oh, but I sentenced her to death. She talked too much. It was her fault.”

No information. This was the case that she most abhorred and loathed for herself.

‘What a chore this has turned out to be…’

Sonidor thought about running away, but that option was blocked in the first place. It was because a knight of the Raizel Guard, whom the emperor had left behind for them to ‘become friends with’, was watching over them.

Being friendly towards them was difficult, however. It was hard to even figure out where the hell they were watching them from. Even though she had heard that Raizel Guard were the most elite knights, she had never heard that they had no presence like air. ‘Are they working as assassins on the side-lines?’ As Sonidor thought about that, she glanced around again for no reason, narrowing her eyes and staring suspiciously at the ceiling.

‘I want to visit my mother’s grave one last time.’

Sonidor was about to say it when suddenly someone knocked on the office door. She spat out an unsightly ‘eek’ sound in a high-pitched voice, and cleared her throat slightly when Terry cast her a pitying glance. Before they could asking who it was, a familiar man in a black hood opened the door and entered.

It was the Raizel Guard that the emperor had left behind.

“Since His Majesty has given us time to organize the surroundings, we will postpone our departure until tomorrow.”

It was as if His Majesty was graciously granting them a brief reprieve before they headed to the Imperial palace. Sonidor heard the hallucination of laughing. ‘Ha, I’m so grateful that I don’t know what to do.’ She sneered inwardly and followed him. Terry was left to pack her things, and now she was walking alone with the Raizel Guard, whose face she couldn’t even see. As she walked through the familiar alleyways, she recognized the little church where her mother was buried nearby. Of course, until then, the two had not exchanged a single word. She didn’t even have to.

However, because of the emperor who insisted on leaving the knight to be friends with her, Sonidor glanced at the man often for no reason. He didn’t seem to have any desire to be friendly, so she gave up after a while.

Originally, it was rare to bury the body of an artisan in a church’s graveyard, but it was not impossible in an empire where those with enough gold could do just about anything. Sonidor was twenty-two this year, but she had amassed a considerable fortune through the legacy her mother left behind. With the money, she paid for a funeral, buried her body, and set up an office. Originally, artisans generally made good money unless they were tied to a contract or had very minor abilities. Especially when it comes to rare and useful abilities like hers.

“Are you doing it properly?”

Sonidor grumbled as she bent down to pluck the weeds from the grave.

“Why don’t you help me while you’re here?”

“Me?”

“I don’t think there’s someone else besides you here.”

Christian, the Raizel Guard, crouched over and quietly pulled the weeds. He was given orders to listen to what Sonidor wanted most of the time, so he would obey, but she couldn’t believe she made a knight of the Raizel Guard pull weeds. Although she had seen many people who shuddered at the mere mention of their reputation, it was the first time she had seen one of them do chores like this. Unaware of his troubled feelings, Sonidor burst into laughter as the bear-sized man crouched down and worked hard pulling the weeds.

“You’re doing well. You are knight after all, so you’re strong and fast. Hey, there really must be nothing you can’t do.”

She smiled and said empty compliments before standing back up. Christian had noticed that she was just spouting empty compliments, but he couldn’t say anything because he would look petty, and just continued pulling the weeds. If she had said before leaving that she had an enemy she wanted to kill, he would have gladly listened to that instead.

Sonidor made a crestfallen expression while staring at her mother’s grave.

“If my mother had been alive, she would have given me a lot of advice. She was better at using her powers than I was. Although, she ended up passing away unexpectedly.”

“Are you the only dream artisan left in the empire now?”

“Yes. His Majesty said that he would bet everything on me. The burden on my shoulders are heavy.”

“Don’t be so weak-willed. The fate of His Highness the Crown Prince rests in your hands.”

“That’s true. Everything is at stake here.”

Sonidor traced the writing on the tombstone with her fingers, then knelt in front of it and kissed it. After her brief kiss of respect and love, she again stroked her mother’s tombstone, and said.

“So, please forgive me for my choice, Mother.”

The corners of her mouth, which she had forced up, trembled. Christian thought her smile was somehow pathetic. As a tribesman of the Descencian tribe, asking to awaken the the Crown Prince of the Arche Empire might have been harsh. He didn’t feel much sympathy for her, but he had a rough idea of how she felt. After a while, Sonidor rose from her knees. She let out a deep sigh as she thought to herself with a troubled expression on her face.

She looked rather serious.

She was agonizing over whether she should say a final goodbye to her one of her only friends before leaving.

Giorgio. A Descencian tribesman like Sonidor, he would constantly get into fights defending his people and had been angry at the Imperial monarchy from an early age. Compared to Sonidor, who tried to solve problems as smoothly as possible, he was a man of unbreakable steel. From the old days, whenever he would be ignored or discriminated against, he fought hard, gritting his teeth and throwing fists. He recently founded the Revolutionary Army for The Artisans’ Freedom with like-minded tribesmen, and she heard it was growing in size…

‘If I contact Gio, he’ll tell me to stop doing this crazy thing right away and join the revolutionary army, or run away at night.‘ He would vomit blood and nag at her, saying how she betrayed the will of her ancestors 500 years ago by helping the enemies of their tribe. If it was her ancestors’ will, it was obvious that he would say she should just let the Crown Prince die under the curse. Or maybe she should give him a dagger to kill himself on the spot.

‘Hmm… Let’s not contact him after all.‘

She made a quick decision and turned to Christian, wiping off her previous troubled expression in an instant.

“What food do you like, knight?”

“What?”

“His Majesty commanded us to become friends, but as expected, there’s nothing like eating food to get closer.”

“Alright.”

“Because I think it’s the last time, there are many things I really want to eat. Did you see the dessert shop across from the office? The Schwartzwalder Kirschtorte* [*t/n: German name for ‘Black Forest cake’, which is a German dessert.] there is amazing.’

‘Shuba, what? Kill what?‘ Christian, who couldn’t keep up with her rapid change of emotions, looked perplexed. Seeing that she is at a dessert shop, she must be talking about dessert. Sonidor, who previously was like a wilted flower, suddenly became lively when she talked about food.

“Can’t you eat something like that in the Imperial palace?”

“Oh, right. If it’s made by a chef in the Imperial palace, it must be delicious beyond comparison. Then, how about food that can only be eaten here? If you go to Mrs. McRan’s pub over there, the braised chicken is very…”

She started chattering incessantly about the food they must eat before leaving. She was a crazy woman. Christian didn’t answer well except for the words he needed to say, but she talked well enough on her own.

While they walked, she ordered Christian to buy two bags of red bean bread that was made by pouring batter into a fish-shaped mold. He carried a full bag on both arms and made an uncomfortable face.

“Haha. You didn’t bring any money.”

“Don’t laugh.”

“Yes, yes. Ooh, the candy over there is delicious too… There won’t be cheap candy like that in the imperial palace, right?”

“Wait here.”

If it hadn’t been for His Majesty’s order, he wouldn’t have even noticed the candy store full of kids. As he entered an unknown world he had never been to before, Christian’s expression became mystified. He was covered by his hood so no one could see his face properly, but he looked like he wanted to run away. He told her to wait, but Sonidor, who dared to follow him, stuck her head out through the crack in the door and asked for some specific snacks.

“Get me some eyeball candy and cane candy. Ah, now that I think about it, I want some caramel too!”

“Eyeball candy?”

‘Why are they making candy out of it?‘ Coming from a prestigious aristocratic family, he had never seen anything other than snacks made by his family. In the first place, he didn’t like sweet things such as sweets or candies, so he couldn’t understand the types of snacks commoners usually ate. They eat even eyeballs, so what on earth can’t they eat? Christian’s face was frozen by such a shock.

While Christian was stuck in shock, the host, who heard Sonidor’s voice, took out each type of candy and put it in an envelope. Looking closely, it was just an eye-shaped candy. Sonidor stepped in, hugged the bag of candy to herself, and handed the lemon candy she had received as a service to Christian.

“Oh, do you have no hands free?”

Then, remembering that Christian was holding an bag of taiyaki bread* [*t/n: Japanese fish-shaped bread, often filled with red bean paste.] in both arms, she opened the rolled up candy and held it out to him.

“Ah.”

“It’s not actually eyeballs, so don’t worry.”

“You knew…”

Embarrassed that he thought it was a real eyeball, he started to say something as if to make an excuse, but he couldn’t finish his sentence. It was because Sonidor had waited for his lips to part and popped the candy into his mouth. The sweet taste he loathed spread throughout his mouth. ‘Be patient. It was His Majesty’s order to grant that woman what she wanted and bring her back safely, ‘ he thought to himself, gritting his teeth. He was too embarrassed to spit out the candy, so he swallowed it whole.

Sonidor ate half a bag of taiyaki by herself. After that, she ate all the candy, and then begged Christian for them to go eat dinner. ‘How the hell did she fit all that food into her stomach?,’ he thought to himself, baffled.

Christian suddenly found himself in a pub, about to eat braised chicken with Sonidor and Terry. He had no choice but to take off his hood if he wanted to eat. Throughout his meal, the tavern owner stared persistently at his face.

“You’re handsome, knight.”

Sonidor said in such a carefree way and tore off a chunk of the chicken leg. It was a pure admiration without any hint of lies, and somehow, Christian was starting to feel embarrassed.